End of school year

I am very happy to let you know that we have come to the end of our most successful year so far.



Children look at their exam results

This year’s end of year examination results are the best since the school began in 2015.  70% of children passed.  There are two reasons for the improvement.  Firstly, the situation this year has been much more stable than last year.  Not nearly so many children have been taken to the refugee camps, so we have been able to teach most of them right through the school year without interruption.  Secondly, we have sub-divided and streamed two of the classes (pre-primary and Primary 3) where there were huge differences in academic levels.  The result was that some children who were really out of their depth at the start of the year have caught up or are at least starting to make headway.

Parents and children with Pascalina, my co-founder (in green cap)

The big news that I shared with parents was that I am stepping down as headteacher in favour of a teacher named Patrick Gore from the end of this term.  Patrick has been with us for two terms and is a very experienced, enthusiastic and committed teacher.  He is also a local pastor, so he has good leadership skills.  I have been on the lookout for a replacement for myself since the beginning as Cece Primary School is intended to be a South Sudanese school, not one which is an entirely foreign intervention.  This will make the school more stable in the long term.  However I will not be leaving.  I will continue as a teacher and also with my fundraising efforts, after a break of one term to allow Patrick to get his feet under the table.

Parents and children leave clutching marked papers

Last Friday we held an end of year celebration, complete with a drama by some of the children on the subject of the importance of taking medicine if diagnosed with HIV, rather than going to a witchdoctor.  This story is very close to reality in Nimule although it might seem a bit fantastic to people in Europe or America.  Everyone enjoyed it very much.  The witch-doctors were very dramatic and the misguided HIV positive parents died with great gusto, flinging themselves on the ground.  This drama was first performed at a local celebration of World AIDS Day, so the children were very well prepared. 

Teachers and cooks at the end of year event

A neighbouring school has recently built a borehole right next to the boundary of our two schools, which they have kindly agreed to share with us.  This will save our cooks from a trek carrying heavy jerricans of water each day.  I am hoping that this is the beginning of cooperation between our schools.

We have received help from several NGOs during the year.  Far Reaching Ministries has continued to feed the school as mentioned in previous posts.  Save the Children has been providing child protection training to staff and children.  Junubaid (a national NGO working with UNICEF) has provided two temporary latrines as well as a lot of teaching and recreational resources.  The local government has organised in-service training for two of our teachers, which is going to continue next year and end with full accreditation.

Pending approval from the local government, we have been promised two stands of four permanent latrines (8 latrines in all) by another NGO called HELP, who are working in the area of sanitation. 

During this term, we have built the foundations for another block of four classrooms.  Funding allowing, work will continue over the school holidays on permanent classrooms.  If the funding does not allow the construction of all four classrooms, the plan will be reduced to two temporary classrooms to be built on the new foundations.  This is necessary because next year we will have a Primary 4 class for the first time and are also intending to divide our pre-primary section into two classes, as there is a heavy demand for places and we do not want the class to be too big. 

Please can I ask for contributions towards the building work, to enable us to build four permanent rooms, rather than temporary ones? 

Our bank details are:

For UK tax payers, please send through the Sean Devereux Children’s Fund so that we can benefit from 25% tax relief from the UK government. Please contact me by email for the gift aid form, if you are able to donate in this way.  My email address is rebeccamallinson1@hotmail.co.uk.

We hope to have a link for US donors soon.